Pricing and Warranty Level Decisions for New and Remanufactured Short Life-Cycle Products

Remanufacturing has become more prominent as a recovery process to mitigate the massive disposal of short life-cycle product at its end-of-use. However, remanufactured product is often perceived to be inferior to new product, and it has lower value in consumer’s willingness to pay. To increase the perceived quality of the remanufactured product, manufacturer offers a warranty, since one of the three roles possessed in warranty is being a signal to product reliability. This paper studies the pricing decisions and warranty level decision for new and remanufactured products in a closed-loop supply chain consists of a manufacturer and a retailer. The optimization modeling is performed under Stackelberg game with manufacturer as the leader. We found that higher expansion effectiveness coefficient would increase the supply chain profit. Also, there is an interval of demand’s speed of change, where the total profit would be at its highest. The optimum warranty level can be achieved regardless the initial warranty level set at the beginning of retailer’s optimization. Furthermore, the remanufactured product’s wholesale and retail prices are influenced by the expansion effectiveness coefficient

How the reverse supply chain impacts the firm’s financial performance : a manufacturer's perspective

Purpose Although manufacturers have traditionally viewed reverse supply chain (RSC) activities as a costly nuisance, more recent research has found that the RSC can contribute to the firm’s financial performance. The purpose of this paper is to identify how the RSC can contribute to the firm’s financial performance and examine the exogenous contingency factors decisive for the contribution’s size. Because the exogenous factors are outside the control of the firm’s operations and supply chain management, the factors influence the RSC’s financial contribution irrespective of managerial policies and design decisions. Design/methodology/approach The paper applies a systematic literature review using the sequence of planning the review, searching and screening literature, extracting information from the selected literature, and synthesizing and analyzing findings. In total, 112 papers were included. Findings The study has identified 15 distinct opportunities for RSC-contribution to the firm’s financial performance. The study has identified 56 contingency factors. These are related to market segmentation, customer behavior, product design, and the firm’s distributor network. The study includes an interrelationship network between factors and the RSC’s contribution. Practical implications For managers, the paper shows how the RSC can increase the firm’s financial performance and which contingency factors determine whether operating a RSC will be financially viable if implemented. Originality/value While extant literature includes several reviews about RSC-related managerial policies and design decisions, this paper contains the very first collection of RSC-contribution opportunities available to manufacturers as well as the first review of exogenous contingency factors

Assessment of consumers' motivations to purchase a remanufactured product by applying Fuzzy Delphi method and single valued neutrosophic sets

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Environmental issues have been worldwide matters of concern especially in the recent decade and have made many firms implement end-of-life strategies such as remanufacturing. In prior studies, the supply side of remanufacturing supply chain has been vastly brought into focus compared to the demand side. Motivational factors that encourage consumers to purchase remanufactured products are getting firms attentions in developing effective marketing strategies to assist them being more productive in the current competitive market. However, consumer acceptance of remanufactured products has been regarded as one of the main reasons why remanufacturing has remained a majorly untapped opportunity for improving supply chain productivity. This study aims at exploring the major motivational factors for buying a remanufactured bike based on the consumers' and experts' opinions. Firstly, twelve motivations identified by scrutinising the literature. Secondly, single valued trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers (SVTNN) and trapezoidal neutrosophic weighted arithmetic averaging (TNWAA) operator were employed to obtain seven significant motivations using the survey data collected from potential customers. This method is applied owing to its capability in capturing the uncertainty of consumers' subjective judgements. Thirdly, the resulted seven motivations are prioritised in accordance with the experts' judgements utilising a proposed modified fuzzy Delphi (FD) method. Ultimately, the most significant motivation to purchase a remanufactured bike identified as quality that suggests quality is the major factor affecting purchase decision of a remanufactured bike. It indicates remanufacturers should focus on quality and attempt to improve the quality of products to gain more competitive advantage. The other six factors that should be stressed by remanufacturer's marketing strategies are prioritised as warranty, price, information provision, remanufacturer's reputation, value-added services and retailer's reputation respectively

Used product acquisition, sorting and disposition for circular supply chains: Literature review and research directions

The vision of a circular economy (CE) inspires firms, governments, and scholars alike. The transition is underway in both practice and the literature, but success depends on the effective implementation of circular supply chains (CSCs), which encompass acquiring used products, sorting them by type and quality, and deciding which to dispose to various processing options. We review 131 high-impact journal articles on returns acquisition, sorting, and disposition (ASD) over the decade 2012-2021 to assess the current status of ASD research for CSCs and to discuss important research directions for supporting the transition to a CE. Uniquely synthesising the state of the art on all these three overarching decision areas, we find aspects of CSCs prominent in the decade's research agenda, such as closed loop supply chain coordination and ASD for remanufacturing, and highlight growing coverage of behavioural considerations. Research applicability has been constrained by a lack of empirical studies, limited practical validation of mathematical models, a focus on economic objectives, and restrictive modelling assumptions about behaviour and uncertainty in returns. We recommend further research in each part of ASD to facilitate a CSC, and as a whole, for transitioning to a CE. CE concepts such as joint decision-making between product design and returns management, cross-sector collaboration, and product-service systems should inform the agenda for CSC research